Intrada Soundtrack Forum

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Most Wanted Unreleased scores:
Howard Shore's AN INNOCENT MAN (1989) Touchstone/Buena Vista
Richard Halligan's THE OCTAGON (1980) American Cinema
Sante Maria Romitelli's GOD'S GUN (1976) MGM/Cannon
Trevor Jones' FREEJACK (1992) Morgan Creek

One benefit to complete presentations is that because everyone's personal tastes differ, some people favor cues that others don't and so on, and because of this some cues heard in the film may have compelled a listener to pick up an album in the first place, only to find the deal-maker cue they enjoyed on screen wasn't included on album at all.

Take the Independence Day album - the original RCA Victor album.

As a soundtrack album it's too one-sided. On one hand it was appropriate for its time, because it represented the large-scale action and suspense music for almost all its 50+ minute running time, and the film was primarily seen for its visual effect sequences.

To add to that, I'm sure the big and loud bombast is what's so appealing for a lot of film music fans.

On the other hand, because it's so one-sided, it all (save for very minor exceptions in "El Toro Destroyed" and "Aftermath") ignored the score's softer, tender, more emotional side. That alone could have filled a 50 minute CD on its own. That was the music that stuck out for me, and when I picked it up (it was my very first CD to go with my first CD player) I was frustrated by the lack of that aspect of the score represented. The First Lady's death, Wedding and farewell/pre-launch of the alien attacker were all representative of that tender side that I had missed on that album.

In that sense I'm grateful for the upcoming complete release, because it's a truly balanced presentation of both personalities of the score.

As someone who loves to see, as opposed to hear, how music works when matched to picture, having alternate cues makes for a great study. You sort of get into the composer's mind and can note what changes were made with regards to the overall story, and if you have the means you can see for yourself how that alternate approach would have influenced the final result - see why it was changed.

Here's an example from Independence Day I put up a long while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOwa9eZgZpU

It becomes fairly obvious that this piece of music was not only too big, but foreshadowed too much. Its in-film replacement was far superior.

I must say something about "The Perfect Storm".

I love that album. Completely.

However, there's a whole other album of music in the film that didn't make the CD which would make for a great companion disc, and it wouldn't even have to undo the album as it currently exists. There was just such a strong presence of music in that film and what didn't make the CD was as compelling as what did. In the case of some of the action cues, maybe even a little more: That pararescue chopper arrival sequence, where they attempt to save the sailboat passengers was a wonderfully adventurous, high-sprited piece and had a great take on the theme used throughout the cue "Small Victories". The eventual chopper ditch into the ocean sequence has a very elaborate string /anvil piece that is fantastic and fast-paced.

Certainly one factor now is that people can make their own personalized versions of CDs, creating "albums" of their very own for their iPods, burning CDs, whatever. Editing software can be had for the cheap. The down side is that this has helped develop a market of collectors who now demand every note and are willing and able (often behind some cloak of internet privacy) to condemn the efforts of the various producers who are actually financing these things to begin with. It's as if some of the collectors that buy the discs feel "entitled" to their own personalized copies and the producers end up scrounging for every cue just to satisfy that burden. And still the complaints will fly. With producers being dependent on the collectors to recoup the investments, it's a love-hate relationship where producers seem unable to please many of the fans and those same fans are unable to find reward in what they are getting, often for the very first time ever. That's not such a good thing. Perhaps expected in an imperfect world, but still not a good thing. It just seems so unfortunate compared to a time when I could buy an LP to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and go home excited, soon finding it was a joy to listen to, no matter that it were incomplete or out of film order and so forth. It was a classic "album".
--Doug

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Most Wanted Unreleased scores:
Howard Shore's AN INNOCENT MAN (1989) Touchstone/Buena Vista
Richard Halligan's THE OCTAGON (1980) American Cinema
Sante Maria Romitelli's GOD'S GUN (1976) MGM/Cannon
Trevor Jones' FREEJACK (1992) Morgan Creek

My own take on it is this, for a lot of these films, particularly the more obscure ones, these will probably be the only CDs ever issued of them. It's taken more than a decade for an FSM release to be re-issued by another company and many of the titles chosen by Intrada, among others, would not be considered to be worth another run. (I'm currently trying to track down a copy of The Nightcomers, having only just seen the film for the first time a couple of weeks ago.)

As a film fan first, when I buy a soundtrack, it's the film I want to re-create in my head when I listen to the score. I was walking around town replaying InnerSpace just this afternoon to "Stop The Car" and it's heavenly. And who knows which part of a score is someone's favourite piece? It could be the main setpiece, or the smallest section (as Freejack mentions with Rent-a-cop above). Therefore, I would like everything and anything that can be put on the discs, to be on the discs. This might be our only chance to ever hear it outside of the film. (I include songs written specifically for the film in this statement - I will be heartbroken if whoever re-issues SpaceCamp one day can't or doesn't put the Joseph Williams songs on it, because I'm probably never going to be able to get ahold of them any other way!)

BUT I don't mind how the album is assembled. Personally, I like the current and standard approach of film chronology, because I'm specifically trying to re-create the film, but if you want to assemble it into an album that flows better for the listener, then as long as other tracks are included at the end, like Roger suggests you'll soon be trying, then that's fine with me. I have a program button on my CD player, and it's no bother to re-order tracks for my iPod at all (I've put the bonus tracks from Natty Gann back into film order and that suits me fine)

You can order the album anyway you'd like, but as long as the opportunity isn't wasted to get as much of the soundtrack as possible released, I'll be perfectly happy with it.

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I haven't thought of a good signature yet.

One of the most unbelievable responses that pops up on this topic and others like it:

I don't want ANYONE making decisions as to what should be on the album but me.

If this be a true statement by said individuals, then I assume they have long since tossed out their copies of UNDER FIRE, CHINATOWN, TARAS BULBA, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SPARTACUS, MacARTHUR, OBSESSION, HOOSIERS, HOUR OF THE GUN, RUDY, AIRPORT and so on and so forth - because someone else DID in fact make creative choices and assembled those classic "albums" without using every cue, every alternate, adhering to strict film sequence and whatever.

If they retained the albums - and more to the point - if they enjoy them, that particular response carries very little weight. Or it's at least a hypocritical response.
--Doug

Mmmm sorry if I'm a bit confused but... the bottom line is that you don't like your own productions?

I can appreciate what Doug says because I grew up with some of the great albums assembled by Williams, Goldsmith etc etc.

Those were the norm for me. But times have changed and now we can, and have been granted, access to even more music. I trust composers who assemble the albums for a good listening experience but something will always get left off.

I don't know where you draw the line, I know that there are many scores that are derserving of a complete release. But I figure there are some that don't need it.

I love Williams' original album for Jaws but damn if I wasn't excited to finally get the original tracks from the film. And there are quite a few albums I can say the same thing about.

I am and always will be grateful for the work Intrada and all the other labels do. My personal preference is to have all the music the composer originally recorded and intended to use. If there are some alternates or re-scored cues, I don't mind them being added.

And I would and will gladly pay for an extra disc if that means adding an album presentation to a complete score.

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"If music doesn`t sing, or dance, or have an interesting harmonic concept, then it shouldn`t be there at all. A film score should burn with its own fire, not merely glow in the dark like a pretty charcoal." – John Barry, 1972